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ESPN and the Big Ten Conference, a major college sports division in the US, are reported to have reached a deal where ESPN will pay an average of $190 million a year over six years for half of the conference’s sports media rights. This deal along with the Big Ten’s recent deals with Fox and CBS will see the conference receiving a total of $2.64 billion over a six-year period, nearly tripling its previous deal.

Dish Network and Tribune broadcasting are involved in the latest, and surely not last, retransmission negotiation impasse. The result is that 42 Tribune broadcast stations and the cable network, WGN America, going dark for Dish customers on June 12th.

Pay TV saw its worst yearly loss in video subscribers ever, losing an organic 1.026 million video subscribers in 2015, substantially more than the 178,420 lost in 2014. Losses at IPTV, coupled with cord-cutting and cord-nevers continue to have a significant impact on pay TV.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the $17.7 billion purchase of Cablevision by European based telecom operator, Altice. The approval comes a week after the FCC and DOJ approved Charter's acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks as the US cable market further consolidates.

The merger of Charter with Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bright House Networks has been approved the U.S. Department of Justice, with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) set to sign off on the merger. The approval, which comes with several conditions, will give the green light for Charter to become the nation's 2nd largest cable operator, rivaling Comcast in size.

Dish Network and Viacom have agreed on a carriage renewal that averts a blackout for the cable group's channels on the second largest US satellite TV provider. The deal, struck just hours after the deadline on 20 April, applies to 18 Viacom networks currently airing on DISH and also includes carriage of select Viacom networks on Dish's over-the-top (OTT) service, Sling TV.

AT&T joins the growing list of pay TV providers that are attempting to entice both cord-nevers and cord-cutters back to pay TV. The company is planning to offer three levels of online-only TV services, under the DirecTV brand, by year end 2016: DirecTV Now, DirecTV Mobile, and DirecTV Preview. The services will be on-demand focused with linear network streaming secondarily.

The Qatari-based BeIn Media Group (BMG) has acquired US studio Miramax. The previous shareholder of Miramax was the holding company Filmyard Holdings, a joint venture controlled by the US investment fund Colony Capital and the Qatar Investment Authority, one of the Gulf Emirate’s sovereign funds. Filmyard Holdings acquired Miramax in December 2010 for $663 million from Walt Disney.

Several pay TV operators, Verizon, Dish Network, Charter, Comcast, and TWC, have instituted (or are trialing) skinny bundles. The problem is that these bundles cherry pick the most popular channels, leaving out smaller channels which don’t get as much viewing.

U.S. cable news network, Al Jazeera America, is set to close down in April 2016, nearly three years after debuting in the United States. The closure is attributed to a non sustainable business model in a challenging media marketplace according to Al Jazeera CEO, Al Anstey. Low ratings, which plagued the network since the start, also contributed to the decision to shut down Al Jazeera America.

European based telecom operator, Altice, is acquiring the nation’s fifth largest cable operator, Cablevision. The deal is worth $17.7 billion including debt, a signal that U.S. pay TV consolidation continues to be a hot topic. Four months after entering the U.S. cable market by acquiring Suddenlink for $9.1 billion, Altice is attempting to form the nation’s fourth largest cable operation, showcasing its ambition and determination to become a major player in the U.S. cable market.

In the U.S., IPTV stumbles in Q2 2015 as cable sustains and improves on its momentum in early reporting from the top pay TV providers. The top cable companies, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, collectively lost 114,000 in the quarter, significantly improving over the nearly 296,00 lost in Q2 of 2014.

AT&T’s $48.5 billion acquisition of the largest satellite provider in the U.S., DirecTV, was officially completed on July 24. The approval – with conditions – was issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The newly formed company will be comprised of more than 26.3 million domestic video subscribers, surpassing Comcast as the largest pay TV provider in the U.S.

One third of gross video additions to Verzion's FiOS TV in Q2 2015 elected to take the company's Custom HD skinny bundle. Overall the company saw 26,000 net video adds in the quarter, markedly down from the same period of the prior year in which 100,000 net subscribers joined the service. Video subscriber growth was limited as certain broadcasters refused to carry ads for FiOS services from April 2015.

Comcast, the largest pay TV operator in the US, is set to offer a low cost ‘streaming cable’ pay TV service. The $15 per month service, Stream, will only be available to Comcast’s internet customers as the service uses the managed-IP part of Comcast’s cable infrastructure to deliver video and not the open internet.

Apple has made its long expected entry into the on-demand subscription music market with the launch of Apple Music: a premium only service with plans starting at $9.99/month for personal plans and $14.99/month for the family plan in the US. Apple Music will be available as a free trial for the first three months.
Unlike its App Store policy, Apple Music launches with differential pricing based on geography and is available for much lower prices in less developed markets.
In contrast to its App Store policy, Apple Music launches with differential pricing based on geography and is available for much lower prices in less developed markets.

Sony’s three month old online pay TV service, PlayStation Vue, will begin offering a limited a la carte offering in July.
Three individual channels will become available for subscription on a monthly basis, with out the need of a TV bundle from PlayStation Vue:
• Showtime priced at $10.99 per month ;
• Fox Soccer Channel for $14.99 per month;
• Machinima (an online gaming and video entertainment channel) for $3.99 per month.